Local politics

art

New Media Center_kuda.org is an independent cultural organization which since 2001 brings together artists, theoreticians, media activists, researchers and the wider public in the research of contemporary art theory and practice, cultural policies, activism and politics. kuda.org tends to make an intervention in the sphere of research and artistic and social experimentation within the field of art and cultural production, from the position of institutional critique and critique of cultural policies. Facing processes of cultural industries and culturalization of politics and art, the collective attempts to map and encourage acts of critique and resistance to comodification of results of art production including attempts of transformation and critique of relations of production which are in the field of art production and outer-art social processes being reproduced through shifts of ideological and „political“ matrixes, which are in the last instance consequence of recuperation of people.

kuda.org creates platform for an open dialogue, experimental education, collaboration and research, and open access to different knowledge resources. Within kuda.org, there have been organized several hundreds public events: lectures and presentations of visiting artists and theorists, workshops, exhibitions, conferences and international publishing project. Over the years, kuda.org has established wide network of collaborating cultural institutions and individuals, locally, in Serbia, in the region and internationally. In 2007, kuda.org co-established Youth Center CK13 (www.ck13.org), one of the rare autonomous spaces dedicated to activism, self-organization and independent cultural production. Since 2012, kuda.org is closely collaborating with Group for Conceptual Politics – GKP (www.konceptualnapolitika.blogspot.rs) from Novi Sad on mutual projects, theoretical researches, publishing and politics of housing (within the project „Local politics and Urban self-management“, www.detelinara.org).

Normal Architecture Office (NAO)’s “Z” Blocks are light and reconfigurable blocks that can be used in multiple ways thanks to their smart geometry designed to resemble the Latin letter Z. The main concept behind this adaptive use of the design is the ease of arranging “Z” blocks into individual, social and hybrid spaces, different in size, being formal or informal, public or intimate. The blocks can stand on their own and be used as chairs, and can be combined together in horizontal benches and sofas. Furthermore, the “Z” blocks can be arranged vertically into building partitions, niches, walls and columns. Finally they can be treated as scattered furniture across rooms and galleries. The geometry of a single block derives from reading alleged US medical recommendations for using prosthetic devices offering better sensual comfort during sexual encounter between middle-class couples. The specificity of geometric angles offered by the US sexologists and their direct applications in sexual products informed the elegant angles of the geometry of the “Z” block. If capitalism is able to produce knowledge specific of its intended use in bedrooms of the American middle-class, the aim behind proposing and producing “Z” blocks is to disperse and Balkanize this scientific knowledge into an abstract everyday social use anywhere free from the dictate of its use.

After every event the visitors using “Z” blocks are free to take them home and use them as they like. The earlier, “dumber”, version of this design produced by Normal Architecture Office’s predecessor: Normal Group of Architecture appeared in the stage set production for an all female contemporary dance company performing in St.Marks Church in the East Village in New York in 2003.